Rites Of Passage
by Nicky-2890
Summary: Post BD Nessie is all grown up, having matured at 7 years old and is now 8. She's having trouble coming to terms with what it means to be an imprint and an over-protective move from Jacob throws her off the edge. Her life turns upside down when on a split decision she takes a trip to South America in an attempt to distance herself from him. Re-imagining of "My Paramour". R&R.
1. Preface

**My Paramour**

 **Preface**

 **Nessie POV**

It has been years since that day when we almost got slaughtered by the Volturi. I remember it so clearly, even though I was so young. I remember the fear, the anticipation, and most of all, I remember all the guests we had. Our house was crowded, every room filled with people. They had all liked me and believed our story and if it wasn't for them, our witnesses, we wouldn't have had a chance.

I almost forgot, I haven't told you my story, or life for that matter, so here it goes:

My family is not an ordinary family. We are vampires, actually most of us are. I'm a half vampire, half human, a hybrid to be more specific. I am the product of a vampire father and a human mother. My whole family has incredible speed and strength. We are a coven of 9: my grandparents, Carlisle and Esme; my aunt Rosalie, who is married to Uncle Emmet; my aunt Alice, wife of my uncle Jasper; my mother, Bella, and my father, Edward. And last but not least, me: Renesmee Carlie Cullen.

I would like to briefly explain my relationship with all these people, a bit of context never hurts. Let's begin with grandpa Carlisle, he is very wise and smart, sometimes I get the feeling he knows everything about everything. He is a doctor, very impressive for a vampire, I know, but he's a great doctor. I look up at him, he is pretty much everything I could ask for as a grandfather. Most of the time we spend together, we talk pretty much about everything, from our life style, to literature, to what he does in the hospital every day. He is over 600 years old, so he's seen a lot of history. We have a perfect grandparent-grandchild relationship, but to the rest of the house, he is the father figure.

Grandma Esme is more of an artistic person. She has decorated every room in our house. We spend our time painting and those sorts of things. A perfect grandmother, except for the fact that she looks like she could be my older sister.

Aunt Rosalie is like a second mother to me. She is constantly worrying about me, checking if I'm well fed, comfortable and so and so forth. Uncle Emmet is another story; he's my partner in crime. I could say that every bit of mischievousness I have was taught by him, and proudly.

Aunt Alice is just great. She may be really short, standing at 4'11", but she is a tornado! She is in charge of the family's wardrobe and everything I wear is approved or picked by her. She's the one who takes me shopping, talks to me about friendships and that kind of stuff. We're friends. And I love her. Did I mention she can see the future? She has a special "gift" as we like to call it. She sees things that will or could happen depending on the person's decisions, but for some reason, she can't see my future.

Uncle Jasper and I have a very deep relationship, maybe because he also has a gift of his own: manipulating and feeling people's emotions. It's a very subtle gift. We spend a lot of time together. He has taught me everything I know about personal defense (much to my father's disapproval), and we just get each other. I don't really know why, but we do. He seems a little shy to any person who looks at him from an outside perspective, but I know him better than that. I know he loves Alice more than anything, he lives for her. And I also know that a good portion of his body is covered in scars from past battles against newborn vampires. Even though he comes from a very violent past, he's managed to remain the most calm of our entire coven.

My mother and I have something I like to call a "modern relationship" because it's not like other people. For example, she doesn't order me to do anything, she suggests. We are both very independent so it's not really necessary anyway. I tell her everything about my life (not that there's much to tell since I only started going to school half a year ago), but yeah, she knows everything. There isn't really much I can say about her, but I know she loves me and my dad above all things. She also has a gift; it's a kind of shield. She seems to be able to block any gift from other vampires that have a psychological effect and she can extend that shield to other people too.

And last but not least, my dad. We have the most amazing father-daughter relationship I can imagine someone could have. And you know why? Because, we're not father- daughter. I like to think of us as buddies, friends, partners in crime. I learned my musical side from him. He plays the piano and has incredible taste in music. I learned how to play the piano when I was just a few months old. I remember I just sat on the bench one day and started playing the lullaby he wrote for my mother. He was delighted to say the least. I also play the guitar since I was 3 years old. I found my uncle Jasper's old guitar in the basement, and learned by myself. But back to my dad and me, we also talk about everything. He has taught me all my manners. He has the gift of reading people's minds. I learned over the years how to block my thoughts from him without him noticing, I can thank Alice for that, because it can be pretty annoying to have your dad inside your head.

Now, let's talk about me. I have curly hair the same color as my dad's, brown eyes like my mom's used to be, pale skin, but a little darker from the rest of my family, that sort of glows in the sunlight, and basically according to my family I'm incredibly beautiful. I have a gift that consists on transferring my thoughts to other people's minds by pressing my palms to their faces, but I haven't used my gift for about 6 years because it makes me feel like a freak. I don't like it when people touch me or stare at me. I can sing quite well and dance. I love having friends and people to talk to, but I like being alone too. I'm an extrovert, but I'm also very calculative according to my dad. And I hate, note: HATE being called by my full name. It's not that I don't like it, because I really do, I don't feel comfortable with people calling me Renesmee al the time. So I prefer Nessie, or Ness. There's also something very odd about me: I've never been in love, not even once. Maybe star crushes, but never with someone I know.

 **Author's Note:** **This is a re imagining of one of my previous stories, My Paramour. I wasn't happy with the way that story turned out and I wanted it to look more polished, I also included Jacob in this new story because I figured it was a crucial part that was missing from my other story and I wanted to include him on this one. Let me know what you think about it in the comments section and please bear with me for the next chapter or so because after that, things will pick up.**

 **Thank you for reading!**


	2. Chapter 1

It's an ordinary day in the Cullen manor, nothing special going on. Mom and dad, or Bella and Edward like Nessie is supposed to call them in public, are curled up in the couch talking quietly; Aunt Rosalie and Alice are internet shopping, while Emmet and Jasper play their own version of chess that includes several boards; Carlisle and Esme are both at the hospital, working. Nessie is busying herself daydreaming and letting her mind wander.

"Renesmee, have you called Jake today?" Bella asks, pulling her out of her own imagination.

Nessie takes a moment to answer because she suddenly finds herself wondering what Jake, her imprint, might be doing back in Forks, Washington. He had moved to Alaska along with the Cullens when they left Forks because the imprint made it a necessity for him to be around Nessie. He would go back every now and then to take care of his pack duties since he was still an Alpha. It used to make Nessie way more uncomfortable to be away from him, but now it was a bit of a relief.

She had always known why Jacob was always around her and why she felt so possessive over him, but she hadn't always _known_ what that actually meant. If it hadn't been for Emmet's indiscretion, she might not have found out by this point. For some reason, the idea of him being hers forever and being forced to stay by her side by some magical bond that not even the shapeshifters understood completely just didn't seem fair to her. And it was beginning to frustrate her that every time she saw a guy that was good looking or a girl that was eyeing her at a café she felt guilt by even thinking about another person other than Jake.

"I haven't, but I will tonight." Nessie says. She notices Edward is staring at her with a slight frown, probably listening to her thoughts. He's never been a fan of her and Jacob's relationship because he can't fathom the thought of his daughter belonging to someone else, even if it isn't romantic at all, but he's come to terms with it by now.

Sometimes, Nessie does wish Jake would ask her out. She's not oblivious to the fact that he's incredibly good looking and probably the coolest person she's ever known, but he doesn't seem to realize that she's not the little baby he imprinted on almost eight years ago. He doesn't exactly treat her like a child, but he doesn't treat her like an adult either. She thinks that maybe if he did show an interest in her then maybe she won't have to feel like he's wasting his life sticking by her side and not dating anyone else, or moving forward with his life.

"You know, it's not like that" Edward says, responding to her last thought. Suddenly, six pairs of eyes are fixed on Nessie's face and she feels her face get hotter as she blushes.

"Eavesdrop much?" She retorts, a hint of annoyance in her words. "It's a bit disturbing that nothing is really private in this house"

"I can't help it sometimes" Edward offers her an apologetic smile and she mimics the expression.

"Be nice, Ness. You know Edward needs to know EVERYTHING about everyone, especially his hormone-driven-sort-of-teenaged-daughter" Emmet has a way being funny, sarcastic and incredibly inappropriate without even trying.

"Could you try and show me a little respect in front of my daughter sometime, or is that too much to ask?" Edward and Emmet soon go into a back and forth banter and Nessie takes the opportunity to quietly slip away and take a stroll through the forest behind their house.

Nessie broke into a run as soon as she entered the forest and when she was sure she was out of her father's hearing range, she settled down with her back against a tree and let her mind wander again. The sky was a faded grey and the cool breeze felt like a soft caress against her skin. She could only hear the sounds of the forest and her own breathing coming in and out of her lungs.

She found herself thinking about that cold winter all those years ago, the only time she had ever seen her family in danger. She wasn't exactly sure what triggered that memory, but for some reason the thing that stood out the most to her wasn't the impending doom that hung upon them, it was the people. All the witnesses her family managed to gather to aid them against the Volturi. Nessie had seen some of them from time to time throughout the years, specially the Denali coven because they lived close by now. But the coven that had interested her most, the one she still had dreams of, was the Amazon coven: Zafrina, Senna and Kachiri. She remembered Zafrina's gift, similar to her own but different in the sense that she didn't have to physically touch someone in order to project images inside their heads. Nessie envied her because it had been so hard for her to learn how to control her own gift and for the longest time she wasn't allowed to even shake hands with anyone she met because it was dangerous.

She remembered those days with bitterness, but they were behind her now. She was in control of her thoughts and her gift and she had even made human friends in school that had no idea of the Cullen's secret. To the outside world, the Cullens were just a bit strange but nothing else. Nessie sighed and looked down at her shoes. Expensive designer flats adorned her feet and every other clothing article she was wearing was also expensive and meticulously picked out by Alice. She wondered what it would be like to have to work hard to buy anything like most humans she knew had to. She was privileged, things like money and luxury were never a big deal to her because she was used to it. She wondered about the coven again and how they dressed with animal skins and fabrics they'd probably found throughout the years.

Next thing she knew, she was calling Jacob from her cell phone. He answered after the first ring, as usual.

"Nessie! I was just about to call you!" This usually happened between them. They would call each other at the same time or text each other the exact same thing. They were connected somehow, after all.

"Why am I not surprised to hear that?" She heard Jake's loud chuckle on the other end and couldn't help but smile. "What did you wanna tell me?"

"Nothing special, I just hadn't heard from you today. I miss you." There was the guilt again. She felt bad for not checking in on him sooner because she knew that he'd be waiting for her call. She was surprised by the hint of anger that flared up inside her. Why did she have to feel guilty?

"I miss you too Jake, but you know you don't have to check up on me all the time. I know you're busy down there" Nessie knew the answer he'd give her even before she had finished that sentence.

"You know I'm never too busy for you" Of course he wasn't. His life revolved around her, after all.

"Maybe you should be" The words escaped her mouth before she could stop herself. They were followed by a pause on the other end.

"Uh… Are you okay, Ness?" He asked awkwardly; causing her to mentally kick herself.

"Yeah, sorry about that" She shook her head as if he could see her.

"You sure? You know, I'm coming back up there in a couple days but I can come sooner if you need me to" She was getting exponentially more and more annoyed and she knew she was being a brat. What was wrong with her? Anyone she knew would kill to have someone like Jacob at their side no matter what. She just didn't want to feel like she _owned_ him anymore, not unless they were involved and she knew that wasn't going to happen any time soon.

"Jake, you have duties down in La Push and I'm absolutely fine on my own. School's out in a couple days and after that I'm free all summer. We can spend all the time in the world together then." She still had no idea what she wanted to do during the summer, but with her family and Jake she had plenty to be busy with anyway.

"Well… Ok, then. Just call me if you need anything, no matter what time it is."

"Will do. Say hi to everyone for me, yeah?" By this point, Nessie was sitting cross-legged on the ground with her back against the tree.

"I will. Love you, Nessie!" He said.

"Love you, too" They usually said goodbye like that, for as long as Nessie could remember. She was so used to it, that it came naturally to her, she didn't even think about it when she said it. It wasn't until one of her friends from school overheard her talking on the phone with Jake and asked her if he was her boyfriend that she even noticed they had exchanged "I love you's". After that, she always remembered that moment and it wasn't so second-nature anymore.

Nessie looked down at her phone as the call ended and noticed she'd been out in the woods for over three hours. "Shoot!" She quickly got up and started for the house; a little surprised that no one had come looking for her. Her family kept close tabs on her round the clock and if she didn't check in every couple hours or so, they'd come find her, unless she was with Jacob.

She entered the house just after 8 o' clock and surely enough everybody was in the living room, waiting for her. She sighed heavily and mumbled 'sorry' as she walked passed them towards the stairs. Bella's concerned eyes followed her.

"Can we at least know where you were for the past three hours?" Edward asked from behind her. Nessie turned around, trying not to roll her eyes and gave her family a brief summary of what she'd done. She edited out the Jacob frustration because that's why she'd stepped out in the first place.

Everyone resumed their personal activities afterwards and Nessie went down to the basement. It was her favorite place in the house because she and Esme had completely remodeled it when they first moved in. It wasn't just a basement anymore; it doubled as a music studio and a dance studio. It was Esme's idea because she'd always wanted to create a space for Nessie to dance freely that was both inside the house and soundproofed. Nessie had the idea of making it double as a music studio since it would already be soundproofed and that way she's have a place to hang her guitars and other music equipment. It was a pretty awesome project and it turned out perfectly.

Nessie was in the middle of the last solo part of Hotel California, when she heard Jasper open the door. She didn't have to look up to know it was him, being completely used to his scent and the sound of his footsteps.

"Sounds good" He said from the bottom of the stairs. He leaned against the railing and smiled down at her.

"Can't go wrong with classic rock, right?" She set her guitar aside while he walked towards her. He sat down on a chair beside her.

"Are you okay?" Jasper never missed a single flicker of Nessie's emotions. He was probably the person she talked to the most, besides Jacob and her mother, but at the moment she wasn't exactly looking for a conversation about her feelings. Talking about what was going through her head at the moment could turn out really badly.

"Why does everybody keep asking me that? I'm fine." She reached over to her amplifier and switched it off.

"You've been feeling incredibly annoyed today and that's out of character for you" He explained with a slight shrug. "Who's everyone?"

"Jake asked me the same thing when I called him earlier." She stood up and paced a bit, running her fingers across the keys of one of the keyboards next to the wall. "I'm really fine; I just want everyone to lay off a bit. You're all kind of suffocating me, to be honest." Jasper gave her a sheepish smile and she couldn't help but giggle a bit at his expression.

"I will do my best to give you some space. I can't make any promises for the others, though." He walked up to her and kissed her forehead. "Get some sleep, ok? You have finals tomorrow."

She scoffed. "Yeah right, like I'm gonna be worried about that". Jasper laughed and shook his head at her. He headed for the stairs and left her alone after that.

Nessie turned in for the night soon afterwards. She didn't need as much sleep as a regular human, but she still needed a good four to five hours a night to stay energized. That night she didn't sleep all too well because she kept waking up in the middle of the night, having nightmares. She finally fell into an undisturbed sleep at around 4 o'clock in the morning, only to be shaken awake just shy of two hours later.

She groaned as she turned over, away from whoever was waking her. "Why are you waking me up? It's too early yet". She wasn't focused enough to notice who it was, but the warm hand should've been a dead giveaway.

"Actually, it's just past six and you're usually up by now." Her eyes shot open and she sat up at lightning speed.

"Jake?" His huge grin showed all of his pearly white teeth. He looked ecstatic, radiant even. "What are you doing here? You weren't supposed to come home for two more days".

"Jeez, talk about a welcome home." She was still trying to figure out if it was all really happening or if she was still asleep. "You sounded kinda weird on the phone so I shifted and ran up here as soon as we hung up. I got here about an hour ago." She was starting to get really angry at this point.

"What about La Push? Did you even say goodbye to your dad or the others?" She could not believe he'd literally dropped everything to run back home just because he thought she sounded "kinda weird".

"They knew as soon as I shifted, it was no big deal" He said dismissively. Nessie could feel her face getting hotter and hotter by the second. She didn't even know exactly why she was getting so angry, but she couldn't help it. "No need to get all red, kiddo. You know I'm always here for you." That was the tip of the iceberg right there.

Nessie was out of her bed in less than a second and she pinched the bridge of her nose while she spoke through her teeth. "Jacob did you not hear me when I said I didn't need you to come up here? And, oh my God" She glared at him as hard as she could and said "Did I just hear you call me 'kiddo'?"

Jacob's face was so surprised it was almost comical, but nothing could possibly seem funny to Nessie at that moment. "Uh… I heard you, but I thought-"

"You thought what?" She snapped at him, throwing her hands up in frustration. "That I didn't sound like you wanted me to sound? So you just dropped everything and came up here? That's really irresponsible of you Jacob!" The pained look on his face almost made Nessie feel guilty, but then she got angry at herself for having to feel guilty.

Jacob walked over to her and put his hands on her shoulders. "Nessie, honey, I'm telling you it was not a big deal. I'm sure Leah and the others are totally fine without me right now." He shrugged and shook his head at her. "Really, they say I'm no fun to be around when I'm away from you because I'm constantly thinking about you." She wasn't as angry as she was uncomfortable by his words. He always did that; he'd call her some sort of little endearment and say things that would leave her feeling confused for days.

She brushed his hands off and moved away from him. She noticed the house was silent and realized everyone had to be listening in to their conversation. "You're suffocating me" She whispered, remember her exchange with Jasper the previous night.

"Well, I'll leave you alone for a while. You need to get ready for school anyway." Her back was turned to him so she couldn't see his expression when he said this, but by his tone she knew he hadn't understood what she'd just told him. It was such a strange feeling, so foreign, having him not understand her for once.

"No, Jake." He stopped at the door and gave her a confused look. She closed her eyes so she wouldn't see his face as her following words came out. "I need you to give me some time away".

* * *

 **Hey guys, sorry to leave you on sort of a cliffhanger but I really felt like it was the perfect way to end this chapter. You'll find out what Jacob's reaction looks like in the next chapter. I'm setting up the major freak out that's going to happen pretty soon, but I need a bit of context for that to happen. Thank you for reading ad don't forget to leave me a review!**


	3. Chapter 2

Jake's hand was still hovering over the doorknob when she opened her eyes, his expression bewildered. "Uh... Okay, then. I'll leave you alone." With that, he stepped out of her room and shut the door behind him. She let go of a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding and walked over to her enormous window; it overlooked the forest that was basically their backyard. She sat down on the windowsill and just gazed outside, an odd feeling in her chest had been creeping up since she woke up and she felt _strange_.

Not two minutes had passed when her mother, Bella, came bursting through the door. It would've startled Nessie if she didn't have enhanced hearing, but she could hear her coming up the stairs. "Can you explain to me why you were shouting at Jake?" She demanded. Nessie rolled her eyes at the window. This was not what she needed.

"Mom, can we not do this right now? I'm gonna get ready for school." Nessie started heading to her closet to pick out an outfit.

"Not do this right now? Renesmee, it's not like you to blow up like that" Bella's tone was concerned.

"I know. I'm sorry." Nessie responded from the inside of her closet.

"Don't apologize to me; I'm not the one you yelled at." Bella said. Nessie moved her clothes to her bed, while grabbing her bag of toiletries and stopped in front of her mother.

"I'll apologize for my tone later." Bella gave her a look. "What?"

"You'll apologize for everything is what I'm hoping you meant." Bella said.

Nessie sighed and crossed her arms over her chest. "No, I think I was pretty clear with everything I said and I'm not sorry for it." This earned a disapproving look from Bella.

"Renesmee." She warned.

"I'm going to shower now. Like I said, I don't want to talk about this right now." Nessie headed towards the bathroom and shut the door behind her.

"Jake doesn't deserve that, you know." Bella said from the other side before leaving. This made Nessie angry again. On the rare occasions that Nessie had done something or acted out against Jacob, which hadn't been more than once or twice in her lifetime, Bella always took his side. Granted, those times had been childish tantrums hat Nessie had thrown that Jacob ended up giving into, but this time was different. Nessie wasn't a child anymore and this wasn't a tantrum.

Finals week at school was going pretty smoothly for her, which wasn't a surprise considering Nessie had been home schooled by her family before she had turned a year old. Carlisle had taught her more than she would ever learn from any high school teacher and Jasper had made sure she knew everything about the history of the United States that wasn't in the textbooks. Her father, Edward, had given her music lessons for as long as she could remember, probably making her the next best candidate to join Julliard.

School was more of a social experiment for her. Nessie was curious about normal human interactions and once she had proven to both know how to handle herself in front of humans and control her abilities, she'd gotten the clear from her family to join the high school in the nearby town. Everyone else had opted for college since they had been through high school way more times than anyone should, except for Bella, but she decided on college as well.

"Have you decided what you're doing this summer? I'm dying for this week to be over. I can't wait to feel the sand under my feet and the blinding sun." Nessie's friend, Natalia had family in the Dominican Republic and would spend part of her summers there every year. Nessie smiled at her friend's enthusiasm.

"I haven't decided yet, but I really do want to travel." The school cafeteria was buzzing with kids talking excitedly about the end of the school year.

"I'm sure Carlisle will let you go anywhere you want, you can even go to the Dominican and visit me if you want." Natalie's tone was hopeful, but Nessie knew that exposing herself under the sun in front of humans was on the top of the no-no list.

"You know, the beach isn't really my thing." Nessie turned her down lightly. "But it's nice to know I have the option."

"Okay but if you change your mind, hit me up." They giggled and went back to eating their lunch and going over their notes before the bell signaled it was time for their final test of the school year.

They were walking to the parking lot and Nessie was fishing for her car keys in her bag, when Natalia tapped her shoulder. "Hey, Jake's here." Nessie's head shot up way to fast for human eyes to see, earning a disapproving look from him when their eyes met. "Is everything okay?"

Nessie narrowed her eyes. "I don't know, I hope so." Natalie said goodbye and headed over to her car. "What are you doing here, Jake?" Nessie asked while she opened the door to her car.

"You might want to think about how fast you're whipping your head around your friends, Ness. You don't wanna give them a whiplash, eh?" He joked.

Nessie rolled her eyes at him. "Sorry about that. I wasn't exactly expecting you to show up here." She placed her hand on her hips.

"Right. I just wanted to talk to you before you got home, face to face you know?" He leaned against the hood of her Mini Cooper.

Nessie frowned in confusion. "Talk about what, Jake? This morning? Look, I'm really sorry I snapped at you, I shouldn't have yelled. But I did mean what I said."

"I know, that's why I gave you some space." Jake stated matter-of-factly.

"You didn't give me any space, you just let me drive myself to school." Nessie's anger was spiking again. She really needed to control her temper, she'd never had to before but recently it had become a priority.

"That's not space? What kind of space do you want, then?" Nessie huffed and got in the car, shutting the door. Jake walked around and got in the passenger seat while she turned on the engine. "I really don't get why you're mad at me."

Nessie pulled out of the parking lot and started back home before speaking. "You know what I don't get? Why, for the first time since I can remember, you can't seem to understand what I'm saying to you." She was gripping the steering wheel tight enough to make her knuckles go white.

"I'm trying to, but you just keep getting riled up! I get that you want to be on your own or whatever, but you know I can't stay away for too long. You're my whole life, Nessie, you know that." Jake's eyes were sincere and Nessie thought about his words. She was sure anyone in the entire world would die to have a guy like Jacob say something like that to them. She knew Natalia would.

Nessie took a few steadying breaths and focused on the road ahead. She knew the way back home well enough to not have to focus at all, but avoiding Jake's eyes had suddenly become a top priority to her. "I know." She whispered, answering his previous statement.

"You know what I think would make you feel better, Ness?" Jake offered.

"What's that?" Nessie asked.

"I think we should go on a trip. Just you and me. We can go anywhere you want, I can talk to your dad if you're worried about him saying no." Nessie looked at him for a few seconds before turning her gaze back to the road. She was sure a trip with Jake would be a great time, but at the moment she was in need of the exact opposite. "What? You don't think it's a good idea?"

She sighed. "I think it's a great idea, but-"

"Cool! I'll talk to your dad as soon as we get home, I think he's there right now. If not, I'll tell him as soon as he gets back from class." Jacob cut in before she could finish.

"BUT" Nessie said, raising her volume. Jacob stopped long enough to look at her in surprise. "I don't want to go on a trip right now. I don't even know what I want to do this summer, I may or may not go somewhere with Alice or Rose."

Jake's breath came out in a huff and he crossed his arms over his chest. "I just don't get why you won't include me in any of your plans."

"I always include you in every single one of my plans, Jacob. I even take you to all my school events." Nessie reasoned.

"Well yeah, but that was before. For the past few weeks you've been trying your hardest to push me away from you." He sounded annoyed, which was a different reaction than what Nessie had been getting from him recently. She immediately felt guilty and angry about it.

"I'm not pushing you away. I'm giving myself some space from you so I won't get sick of you. There's a difference, Jake." She said in a steady voice. Jake seemed to think about it for a second.

By then, they had already turned the corner that lead to the front yard of the Cullen Manor. Nessie slowed down to park her car near the entrance. There was more than enough space for all the Cullen cars in the garage, but she always preferred parking outside.

"You never got sick of me before." Jacob mumbled before getting out of the car and heading for the door. He didn't wait for her. Nessie sighed and gathered herself before heading for the house.

She was greeted at the door by Esme. "How was your last day?" She asked with a warm smile, hugging her.

"It was fine. I'm glad I finally get some time off." She smiled back at her grandmother. The woman could make her heart melt just by looking at her. One of Esme's many talents, in Nessie's opinion.

They started heading for the living room, where Jasper was sitting with a book in his hand. Jacobb wasn't there, probably having headed to the guest bedroom. "Do you have any idea of what you want to do this summer?"

"No, not at all. But I do think I wanna travel somewhere." Jasper raised his gaze to meet hers and gave her a small smile. Something in his eyes told her he knew something wasn't right.

"Let me know as soon as you think of a place so I can make arrangements for you." She kissed Nessie's forehead and left her in the living room with Jasper. Her heels barely making a sound as she walked away.

Nessie considered going straight to her room, but decided against it. She just stood in front of the staircase and observed her uncle for a few moments.

"Jacob seems upset." He commented, his gaze back on his book. Nessie nodded her head slowly to herself. "And you're angry again." Nessie looked up and locked eyes with Jasper.

"Yeah, that seems to be a recurring theme as of late." She sighed and walked further into the living room. Jasper watched her in silence for a few seconds before speaking.

"I know. What I don't know is why." He said. Nessie turned her gaze away, avoiding his gentle gaze.

"It's stupid, I don't wanna talk about it right now." She mumbled. Jasper closed his book and set it on the coffee table. He walked over to Nessie and put his hand on her shoulder.

"I'm going for a walk, would you care to join me?" Nessie nodded in response and they headed for the glass doors in the back wall of the room. Jasper's request had more than one meaning, the main one being that leaving the house meant they could talk freely without Esme or Jacob hearing them.

They walked side by side in silence for a long time. They kept a steady pace at human speed until they were far enough from the house. Nessie waited for her uncle to speak first, knowing he'd want some answers from her. She kept walking beside him in silence, waiting.

"Are you happy school is over?" Jasper asked, breaking the silence. Nessie smile a little bit. Small talk wasn't Jasper's forte, but she knew what he was trying to do.

"Yeah." She answered.

"Are your friends staying home for the summer or are they traveling?" Nessie didn't get to hang out with her human friends as often as she would like, but mostly it was due to the fact that most of the times she got invited somewhere she either had other plans with her family or Jacob wanted to tag along. Having him around all the time usually didn't bother her friends, but when the girls wanted to do something without the boys it was a problem.

"Natalia is going to the Dominican with her family like she always does, but I think the others are staying. At least for now they are." She said.

"Oh, that's too bad. I know you really enjoy spending time with her." He offered. "But you can make plans with the other, too." She smiled up at him. He was really trying.

"Yeah, you're right." Nessie said. "I know what you're doing." She added.

"Do you?" Jasper asked with an innocent look on his face. Nessie giggled in response. "And what is that?"

"Yeah, I do." She said. "You're trying to get me to talk about my feelings."

Jasper smiled apologetically and stuffed his hands in his pockets. "Is it working?"

"A little bit." Nessie said. "Your small talk skills need some improvement, though."

Jasper chuckled at her teasing. They slowed their pace a bit more and Jasper turned more serious after a few moments.

"I can get a reading about how you're feeling, but I don't know the reasons behind your emotions." He said.

"I know." Nessie answered. She waited for him to continue.

"So far, I know that for the past few weeks you've been feeling stressed and angry." He continued. "There's also a great deal of guilt. I imagine it stems from the stress and anger."

They came to a stop after a few seconds. Jasper looked at Nessie, his gaze calm as always, but deeply concerned.

"I can also tell that the main source of all that stress has been Jacob." He added quietly. He waited for Nessie's response. She took a deep breath and looked away.

She gathered her thoughts for a few moments. It was difficult for her to talk about this, but if anyone was going to understand her point of view it would be Jasper. He always understood her, no matter what.

"You're right. About all of it." She said. She shrugged. "I honestly don't know what else to say about it. You pretty much summed it up yourself."

"Why is he making you feel that way?" Jasper asked. "Has he done something in particular or is it something else?"

Nessie thought about her response for a moment. "No, he hasn't done anything in particular. At least nothing different than what he's always done."

"Alright." Jasper said. "Why do you think it's affecting you now?"

"I don't know, it just is." She said quickly. Jasper's eyebrows drew closer and caused Nessie to think about her response. "Actually... I do know why, I just don't know if you'd understand."

"Try me." He urged. Nessie looked at him, pondering. She decided it was time she told someone. She wondered where she should start. These were things she had thought to herself before, but she never had the need to organize those thoughts to try and explain to someone.

"Why don't you start from the beginning?" Jasper offered, answering her inner turmoil.

"Okay, that's a good idea." She said. "I guess... I should've seen this coming, you know? I grew up watching Jacob and his friends from the pack and I've always known. Even though you guys have never said anything about it, I've always known somehow."

"Known what?" Jasper asked. Nessie looked at him with sad eyes.

"All the imprints, they end up together." She said. "As in _couple_ together. Except for the ones who've imprinted on babies. But that's because they're babies, obviously. I'm sure as soon as they're old enough, they'll get together."

Nessie expected Jasper to seem surprised at her reveal, but he only seemed concerned. Maybe she hadn't been as discrete as she'd thought.

"Nessie, you don't have to feel pressured into anything. We don't expect anything from you, and Jacob doesn't either." He comforted her.

"No, let me finish. I know that Jake isn't waiting for me to suddenly fall in love with him. That's extremely clear, trust me." She said. "What I'm trying to say is that even though I've always known, I also kind of expected to someday wake up and things would have fallen into place the way they're supposed to. I mean, all my girlfriends are always telling me how attractive Jacob is and I get it. I mean, I'm not blind, and I know him better than anyone. I know he's funny and loyal and he'd do anything for me."

"But?" Jasper interjected.

"But... I just don't feel that way." She managed. "I'm angry and I'm stressed because I know that Jacob's entire life revolves around me. Every single breath he takes, he does it thinking about me first and that' lovely for the most part. But I also can't help but feel a bit jealous every time one of my friends goes on a first date or tells a story about buying coffee for a pretty girl at the coffee shop. And it's silly because I obviously can't just go out on a date with a random human, regardless of Jake being a part of the equation or not."

"You want that freedom." Jasper said. It wasn't a question, it was a statement.

"I do, but I don't want that freedom for me." She reasoned. "Jacob isn't going to be around forever, Jazz. He's human. He isn't aging right now for some reason, but someday he will and I can't even begin to think about what that would mean to me. Even if, by any chance, things were to work out between us and we ended up getting involved he'd die and I'd live. What's fair about that?"

Jasper seemed surprised at her words. It took a few beats before he said anything. "Ness, I had no idea you were thinking like that." He said. "I know it seems really scary to you right now, but you don't need to be angry about it. You'll never know what could happen tomorrow."

"I'm not angry about the finality of Jacob's life." She said, her voice sounding harsher than she intended. "I'm angry because he doesn't have a life outside of mine. I'm not interested in him, romantically speaking, and I don't think he'll be interested in me either as long as I feel that way. But he should be aloud to do whatever he wants, he should be allowed to have a life."

"He's happy with his life now." Jasper said.

"I know that." Nessie replied. "He's happy because he's wired that way. He's going to be happy with whatever life I can offer him and that's just wrong. And every time I feel like I need to be away from him I feel guilty for being so selfish, but then I feel angry for feeling guilty. I want to be able to feel however I want to feel without constantly having to justify it."

"And I can't just tell him to go get himself a girlfriend because he won't. I know deep down that he won't seek out a life that doesn't revolve around me. I honestly don't know what to do and he keeps following me around and just smothering me and I know he can't help it." She continued. "And I need him. I need him around all the time like that. The imprint makes it a physical need for me to have him around all the time, even when I'm sick and tired of seeing his face."

Jasper seemed surprised to hear all of this. Nessie took one look at his face and the guilt immediately set in. "Oh my god." She whispered, feeling more ashamed than she ever had before. "I'm a horrible person, I can't believe I just said all that!" Her hands flew to her mouth. "I'm a horrible, horrible person. I'm so sorry, Jazz. I'm a horrible person." She started pacing around repeating the word 'I'm a horrible person' over and over again. She kept going for a few moments like that until Jasper grabbed her shoulders and stopped her mid sentence.

"Hey, hey stop!" He said. "Renesmee, you need to stop. You're not a horrible person, don't you ever say something like that ever again." Nessie felt tears prickling at the corners of her eyes. She felt so ashamed, but everything she had just told him where her deepest thoughts and she knew that. It made her feel terrible. "Please, don't do this to yourself. You've enough to handle already."

Jasper drew her into a tight hug and she buried her face in his chest. He held her like that until she calmed down enough to listen to him. "I don't know what do, Jasper. What should I do?" She said, her voice muffled against his shirt.

"I dunno, darlin'" He said, apologetically. "I really wish I knew what to say, but right now all I can come up with is that it'll work out somehow. You'll be just fine, I know it."

"How do you know?" Nessie asked.

"Because I believe in you and I know that you're the most pure-hearted person I've ever met." Jasper replied. Nessie stayed in his arms for a little while longer.

The sun had begun to set when she pulled away from him. Jasper stroked her cheek and smiled down at her. "Do you feel any better?" Nessie gave him a weak smile.

"You tell me." She said, back to her regular joking. Jasper chuckled.

"Let's go back to the house, I'm sure most of our family should be back by now." Nessie nodded and followed him back towards the Cullen manor. The others had either work or afternoon classes, but it was about time for them to be back. Nessie knew she would have to deal with her father reading her mind, even if she blocked her thoughts from him. Jasper wasn't as good at it as she was and Edward knew enough to keep close tabs on him whenever he wanted to know something about his daughter.

They reached the house in just a few minutes running. Jasper had a weird expression on his face as soon as they were in hearing range, but before Nessie could ask him about it, they were already walking through the glass doors into the living room.

Alice practically jumped on Nessie the second she set foot into the house. "We've been waiting for you two!" She chirped. "How was your last day of finals?"

"It was good." Nessie said. "We were just-"

She heard a conversation going on in the kitchen and very quickly, she understood Jasper's weird facial expression from before. It was Jacob and her parents; it sounded like Jacob was trying to convince them about some sort of trip. Nessie's blood boiled under her skin as she stalked into the kitchen.

"Renesmee, there you are!" Bella said. "Jacob was just telling us about-"

"What do you think you're doing?" She snapped at Jake. His eyebrows shot up to his hairline.

"Renesmee." Edward warned her.

"I was just telling your parents about our plans of going on a trip together now that you're off school." Jacob said, innocently.

"What trip are you talking about Jacob?" Nessie asked.

"What do you mean 'what trip'?" He said. "We were talking about it this afternoon, kid."

"No no, I told you that I didn't want to go." She said quickly.

"I just thought if I talked to your parents for you, it would take a bit of the load off you." He explained. "And you said it was a great idea."

"I said it was a great idea, _but_ I don't want to." Nessie said in a hard voice. "And the only load I need off of me is you! You need to back the hell off!"

"Hey!" Bella rose from her seat. "Apologize right now, Renesmee!"

"Are you kidding me?!" Nessie exclaimed.

Edward rose from his seat as well. "Renesmee, calm down!" He said.

"See? This is what I keep telling you, Ness. You keep blowing up for no reason." Jake intervened.

"For no reason? Are you hearing yourself?" She said, exasperated. "I told you specifically that the only thing I maybe wanted to do was travel somewhere with Alice or Rose."

"Well then, you can bring Jacob along with you." Bella offered. Nessie's head whipped in her direction.

"No!" Her voice rose again.

"Why not? He's your imprint!" She replied. "And stop yelling!"

"Bella." Edward stepped in. "Renesmee, you need to stop screaming. If you don't want to go on a trip with Jacob, you don't have to. But you can't yell at us for trying to offer a solution."

"Look, we can figure something else out." Jacob said. "We'll talk it out, okay? There's plenty of time, kid."

"I told you." Nessie said through her teeth. "DON'T CALL ME KID."

"Renesmee, get back here!" Bella called after her.

"Let her go, Bella." Edward said. With that, Nessie stormed upstairs to her bedroom and shut the door behind her.

She leaned back against the door and slid down until she was sitting on the ground. Her mind was racing, she needed to regain control before her dad fished out any stray thoughts. She closed her eyes and tried to calm down, focus.

Her breath slowly began to deepen and she felt her heart slow down significantly. She hadn't realized how fast it was beating before. She opened her eyes and looked around her. "I need to get out of here." She whispered to herself.

Later that night, her parents decided to hunting nearby. It was Friday, so they didn't need to head back to class the next day and they told Nessie they would give her some space to think about the things she'd said earlier. Alice and Emmet went with them. Jacob was instructed by Edward to keep his distance from Nessie for the night. He decided to phase and go for a run through the woods.

As soon as Nessie felt them all a safe distance away and the house went back to being silent, she made a decision that would forever change the course of her life.

She didn't know how long she had until someone realized what she was planning, but she knew that as long as Jacob's future was mixed with hers she was safe from Alice's visions. She went through her closet and grabbed three sets of clothes and stuffed them inside an empty backpack. She grabbed her wallet and checked her debit cards. She would need money, but she knew credit cards were traceable, so she ditched those. She would have to take out cash from a cashier somewhere.

She left her cellphone in her night stand and grabbed a few more essentials and stuffed them in her backpack. She tried to make as little noise as possible while she ran around. Her hands were trembling in fear. It was only a matter of time until Jasper sensed the whirlwind of emotions she was going through and she wasn't sure if she'd be able to face him when he did. She knew he'd try to stop her, and she also knew he'd be successful. She didn't even take a last look at her bedroom before she opened the glass doors that led to her balcony. She jumped off easily and landed in the back yard.

She ran into the woods and immediately stopped herself. Jacob was in there somewhere and she could feel it. She would have to run around the house and head in the opposite direction if she wanted to get away fast, so she did. She made it off the Cullen's property and ran all the way through the nearby town without being seen. She was back in the forests in no time and kept going as fast as her feet could carry her. She had no idea if anyone in the house had noticed her gone and was following her, but she didn't stop to check either.

She ran for a good 45 minutes and reached a clearing. She noticed something there and came to halting stop once she realized it was a man. She was panting and her eyes were wide in shock as she noticed it was exactly who she didn't want to see.

"I heard you open the doors to your balcony." Jasper said in a cool voice. He stood with his hands in his pockets.

"You heard me leave?" Nessie asked, panicking.

"I did." Jasper answered and looked down. He looked sad, or maybe he was disappointed. "But I knew you would even before that."

Nessie was shacking at this point. She didn't know if it was possible for her to have a panic attack, but she felt like she would. "Did the others hear me too?"

"I don't think they did, but they'll know soon." He replied. He stepped closer to her and she took a step back in return. Jasper looked sad again, or disappointed.

"Please, don't." Nessie warned him. "I can't go back."

Jasper looked at her for a moment and then proceeded to take something out of his pocket. Nessie flinched, alarmed.

"Are you gonna call them?!" She gasped, but Jasper held up his wallet so she could see. Nessie felt her eyebrows draw together in confusion.

"I understand why you'd want to leave without saying good bye, but I couldn't help myself." He walked closer to her and took something out of his wallet. He extended his arm out towards her, trying to hand her a black credit card. "Take it. I'll arrange for the bank not to block it if you use it in another country and you can destroy it afterwards if you don't want me to trace it back to you." Nessie slowly took the card from his hand and he immediately handed her a debit card as well. "There's enough money in this one to last you for a while, take out as much as you need."

"Why are you doing this?" Nessie asked him. She couldn't believe he was actually helping her escape. Jasper gave her a small smile.

"I told you before. I believe in you." He said. "And I want to make sure you'll have everything you need." Nessie felt a single tear roll down her cheek and before she could stop herself, she crashed into Jasper's arms and hugged him as tight as she could.

"I'm so sorry, Jazz." She said. "I have to get away, I have to do this." He returned her hug.

"I know." He said. "We've all felt overwhelmed at some point. It's not easy to live the way we do, I can't imagine what it must be like for you."

Nessie gave him one last squeeze and loosened her grip so she could step back. "I'll come back, I promise. I just need to take some time off."

Jasper smiled in return. "I know." He said. "But you need to leave now if you want to make it wherever it is that you're headed."

"I still haven't decided where I'm going." Nessie said.

"That's alright, I just needed to make sure you'd be alright." Jasper replied. "Please promise me that if you sense another vampire close to you, you'll run away immediately. Not everybody is as friendly as we are."

"I will, I promise." Nessie said quickly. "I'll try to stay among humans most of the time, that way I'll lower my chances of finding someone like you."

"Okay." He said. "You need to go now, Nessie." With that, he gave her a kiss on the forehead and let her go. Nessie took a deep breath and started heading off in the same direction she'd been going before.

"Nessie!" Jasper called out. She turned around. "I don't know if this is too much to ask, but could you please call me every once in a while? So I can know you're okay?" Nessie considered it for a moment.

"I'll try." She said. She turned back around and she was running again. She knew that not making any decisions would further help her confuse Alice's visions, so for as long as she could she just kept running forward. She thought about Jasper and the trouble he'd be in with the family once they knew what he'd done. "Thank you." She whispered in the air.

 **A/N: Sorry it took me so long to upload this chapter and how long it turned out. I needed to get the story going, so I ended up cramming two chapters in one. The next chapter we'll find out if the Cullens and Jacob are able to catch up with Nessie or not.**

 **Hope you all enjoy how the story is going so far, I know it has nothing to do with the description yet, but we'll get there.**

 **Till next time.**


	4. Chapter 3

Nessie didn't know for how long she ran, all she knew was that she couldn't stop. She was hours away from Denali when she decided that she needed to stop at a cashier. She took out as much money as was allowed from her own debit cards and some from Jasper's. She only took out that much because she had no idea when she'd be able to stop again. She decided not to dispose of the cards just yet because even if her family tracked where she'd stopped, she'd be long gone by the time they did. She stuffed the money inside her back pack and quickly checked to see if her passport was in there. She didn't exactly remember what she'd put inside her bag because she did it in such a hurry, but thankfully her passport was at the bottom. She wouldn't be mounting any planes any time soon, but if she wanted to cross the border in a bus, she'd need it.

It took her another couple of hours to reach the Canadian border, which she decided to cross on her own instead of getting on a bus. She crossed around it easily without being seen and quickly found herself in the Yukon territory. There, she decided it would be best if she traveled using public transportation so she could be more inconspicuous. She stopped at the first bus station she could find and bought a ticket to the very last stop of one of the buses. It would take her out of the province by early morning, which worked perfect for her because she's be needing to catch a few hours of sleep pretty soon. She could very well go on without it, but she couldn't risk weakening herself, in case she needed to make a run for it out of the blue.

The bus ride provided a certain degree of comfort for her and she was able to fall asleep for a couple of hours. She would've slept more, but her dreams had been particularly unpleasant and caused her to wake up. Every time the bus stopped, she opted not to get off for a break like most people did. She instead used the time to look at a map she'd picked up from the bus station. She knew the bus would take her into British Columbia and from there she could just board another bus at the station. She wasn't sure if she would cross over to Alberta or go straight into the States. She knew she wanted to spend at least half a day in Vancouver because she really enjoyed that place, but debated whether or not it was worth the risk to stay still in one place for too long.

Nessie reached British Columbia in the early morning of the next day and boarded a different bus. This one would take her to Vancouver but she wouldn't be stopping there, instead she'd board another bus, cross the border to the States, and go straight into Idaho. She made sure the route would avoid going through Washington because she imagined her parents would think she'd go there. She would've loved to see Charlie and maybe their friends in La Push, but she couldn't risk it. She needed to keep putting as much distance as possible between her family and herself for the time being.

A few days passed and Nessie found herself in New Mexico. She decided to stop taking buses there because the summer sun could expose her, instead she booked a room in a bed and breakfast and spent the night there. She was starting to feel thirsty, but since she wasn't sure if she could find a forest to hunt in she decided to have breakfast before checking out and moving on. Human food wasn't her favorite choice, but she did like a few things and it helped her blend in better with humans. She was out the door and running through the edge of town as soon as possible, trying to cross the border into Mexico as soon as possible. She wasn't sure how public transportation worked there, but she knew she could always run and she could speak enough Spanish to find her way out of the country easily.

Once she passed through Mexico, crossing Central America was pretty much a straight line. Within a week, Nessie was able to cross most of North America without any signs of her family following her. It wasn't until she reached Guadalajara that she experienced her first hardship.

Nessie was never sure exactly how her connection to Jacob worked. All she knew was that they were meant to be close to each other and she could always feel it in the middle of her chest when they were apart. It was a kind of ache that she could always ignore, nothing too bad, and she was sure Jake felt it too. But Jake and her had never been further apart than Washington state and now she was in Mexico. She was mid run when suddenly she found she couldn't take a step further. Her body was shaking and she felt a cold sweat in the back of her neck, her chest hurt like something was being pulled from inside it. She knew immediately it had to with the imprint because she had never felt tired from running, but now she gasped for air and clutched her hand to her chest.

"What's happening to me?" Nessie said out loud. She felt sick, literally. She fell forward on her knees as her body convulsed, causing her to empty the contents of her stomach onto the ground in front her. She started panicking. Her hands were pale and her breathing was shallow. She had never been sick before since the vampire side of her made her immune to any human deceases, but this was entirely new to her. She was having withdrawal symptoms like the ones humans usually get when they quit using drugs or alcohol. She shrugged of her jacket in a an attempt to make herself feel cooler but she noticed sweat coming out of her in pools. It was disgusting, she felt disgusting and couldn't help but curl into fetal position in the ground.

She remained like that for a while, unable to move from her position, and wondered if she'd be stuck there. The only movement that seemed possible was back. Back home, back to Jacob. Nessie felt tears streaming down her face as she realized how helpless and vulnerable she'd made herself. Why had she run? Her family loved her and she had everything she wanted. Jake was there for her no matter what and she had been able to make friends at school. She was being reckless, acting out like a hormonal teenager and it was all her fault. She cried into the night by herself and for the first time in her life, she felt lonely.

A ray of sun hit Nessie in the face and the sound of birds chirping woke her up with a startle. She had fallen asleep in the same position she'd put herself on the ground. She looked around and noticed there was nothing around her, she was in the middle of nowhere. She hadn't noticed where she was the night before because she felt so sick. That reminded her of the events of the previous night and looked down at herself. She was filthy, her clothes clung to her and had wet spots all over. She also smelled pretty bad, probably from throwing up and sweating. It was strange to her, she had never broken a sweat before. She touched her chest with her hand and noticed the pain was still there, but it wasn't as bad as the night before. She slowly stood up and tried taking a step forward, her feet responded slowly because the way she'd fallen asleep was awkward, but she was able to take tiny steps and eventually walk a normal pace.

Why the previous night she hadn't been able to keep moving probably had to do with how sick she was feeling, but that morning she found it easier to push through the pull in her chest. Nessie had never heard of two imprints being apart from each other the way she was from Jake right then so she had no idea what could happen to them, but she wasn't feeling as depressed as the previous night about her decision. She knew in her heart that there was a reason she was where she was and she felt she needed to keep going. She could've just stayed in Mexico, but she wanted to reach South America to feel safer so she broke into a run as soon as she was able to.

By the time the sun had started setting she was almost crossing over to Guatemala. As soon as she reached the country, she made it her priority to find a place where she could stay for the night. She still reeked from the previous night and she needed a shower, she also needed to change her clothes and dump the ones she was wearing. That would leave her with only two sets of clothes, but she could shop for more as soon as she could find a bank to exchange American dollars to quetzals. Guatemala City was buzzing with people as she made her way through, she wasn't sure what day of the week it was but it didn't matter to her anymore. She was able to find an exchange house and got some money to go around, her next stop was wherever a hostal was. She asked around and some people pointed her in the direction of a place called 'Dos Lunas Guest House' that wasn't too far away from where she was. Once she found the place, she booked a room and jumped into the shower as soon as she could. The people behind the front desk had given her a weird looked due to her appearance but she couldn't bring herself to care. Nessie collapsed on her bed and was asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.

The next day she decided to keep heading south without stopping. She was determined to reach South America as soon as possible so she could finally take a few days to explore. She was tired of looking behind her shoulder all the time, feeling like a fugitive. If her family hadn't reached her by then, she doubted they'd be able to find her for some time. She remembered Jasper's request and decided she'd find a public phone to call him from whenever she found a place to stay for a couple of days.

The trip through Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama took a couple more days since she didn't stop to rest. When she reached Colombia, she decided it was time to take it easy. She'd never been to South America before and everything was so different from what she was used to. She liked the way people acted and how warm it was, even if she had to stay away from the sun all day. She looked for hotels in the central area of Medelin. She didn't want to risk running into another vampire and she knew it was highly unlikely to find one in a hotel in the center of the city. She looked for a more luxurious place to stay because she'd been skipping from B&B to B&B ever since she began her travels. She stopped a bank and exchanged money to Colombian pesos.

She decided on a beautiful hotel called Hotel Estelar Milla de Oro, it seemed quite lovely and she wanted to stay for at least a couple of nights. The service was pretty incredible and she able to book a small room for herself. She didn't need anything too big, she just needed access to a phone where she could make long distance calls and that was pretty much it. She tipped the staff member that had showed her to her room set her backpack on a chair near the door. As soon as she was alone, she kicked off her shoes and sat on the bed, picking up the land-line phone that was on the night stand.

She dialed Jasper's cell phone number by memory and bit her lip while she waited. He picked up after the second ring.

"Nessie, is that you?" He asked. Nessie felt her heart speed up and she was suddenly trembling.

"It's me, Jazz." She replied. She heard rustling in the background and almost hung up.

"Are you alright? Have you been safe this whole time?" He asked quickly.

She decided to omit the episode from a few days ago and answered with as simple 'yes'. Jasper was cut off by someone taking the phone from him. Nessie waited to hear who it was, already convinced that she would hang up if it was Jacob or either one of her parents.

"Renesmee Cullen, how dare you leave without saying good bye to me!" Nessie sighed in relief when she heard Alice's high pitched voice. "How dare you leave at all, we've been worried sick about you!" Alice didn't sound angry, but Nessie knew she was hurt.

"I'm really sorry Ali." She said, using the usual endearment she had for her aunt. "I didn't have time for goodbyes."

It took a couple of seconds to get an answer from the other end. "I didn't see you leave." Alice said in a quieter voice. "I've only been able to see blurs from your future but I can't tell where you are." That was interesting to Nessie, she always thought the reason behind Alice not being able to see her future clearly was because of Jacob but maybe she couldn't see either one of them very well.

"Sorry." Was all she could answer.

"We'll come get you, I can go by myself or with Jasper if that's what you want." Alice said. Nessie noticed the not-so-subtle way she didn't offer to have Jacob come get her, but either way she didn't want to leave.

"Ali, I can't leave. I'm sorry you guys miss me, I miss you too but I don't want you to come and get me." She said. She heard Jasper ask Alice for the phone back and also heard Alice respond with a 'you already spoke to her, it's my turn'. "Where are you guys?" She was surprised someone else from the family hadn't snatched he phone from either one of them to talk to her.

"Jasper and I went for a walk you called." Alice said. "We're not home, if that's what you're wondering. The house is a war zone right now and it's giving both of us headaches." Nessie heard rustling again and Jasper's voice came through next.

"You don't need to worry about us here, darlin'." He said softly. "I'm happy just knowing you're okay." Nessie smiled at her uncle's simplistic understanding. She wasn't sure why he was the only one supporting her decision, but she didn't want to question it too much.

"I have to go now, but I just wanted to let you know I'm fine." She said. "I really hope things calm down back home, I don't want you guys to fight because of me." She couldn't help but feel bad for causing trouble, even if she had no idea how much drama was going down back home.

"It's alright." Jasper said. "I love you -ouch!- Alice loves you, too." Nessie heard Alice in the background, she could picture her smacking Jasper and giggled.

"I love you guys, too. I'll call some other time." She replied. "Bye." She hung up and sighed. That phone call was easier than she'd thought, but she didn't know if she'd be able to keep calling once she settled in a particular country. She wasn't sure exactly where to go from there, but she had a couple of days left in that hotel so she could explore the city for a bit.

She decided t stay in for the night and just relax. She hadn't been able to do that and she needed to slow down. She couldn't keep running without direction anymore.

* * *

 **Author's note: I'll leave this chapter here because I honestly don't know what else to do with it for now. Nessie's finally in South America, which is exactly where I need her to be in the story right now.**

 **Sorry for the lack of dialogue, but next chapter we'll meet some new characters. New to the story, but not new to the Twilight Series.**

 **I don't own anything, just the plot. Stephenie Meyer still owns everything related to the saga, so no need to pretend like this is mine.**

 **Please leave some reviews and let me know if you're liking my story so far. I have no reviews right now and I can't improve if you guys don't help me!**

 **Till the next time.**


	5. Chapter 4

Nessie spent three days exploring Colombia. She ate at restaurants, went to bars at night and befriended random strangers. She found that Latin people were warmer than north Americans and she loved it. She was a very friendly and quirky person by nature,s o she fit right in with the general environment. She noticed how much more reserved she'd turned in the past year and how much she missed being the spontaneous carefree person she used to be when she was still growing up.

Nessie danced to Latin rhythms with strangers and had several men and women buy her drinks at the bars she went to. She welcomed the attention, and returned some of it as well. She was used to being the center of attention back home and she genuinely loved entertaining people. It was the main reason she loved dancing so much, she even had plans to maybe go to some kind of performance art school once she was done with high school. She knew she could never pursue a real career, though. They had to remain as inconspicuous as possible and having Carlisle work as a doctor in several hospitals already gave them much to worry about when the time came for them to move on. They had to erase his records from working at the Forks hospital when they moved to Alaska.

The three days went by quickly and Nessie knew it was time to move on. She didn't feel the need to run anymore, but she wanted to keep exploring and she wanted to see the Amazon rain forest. She wondered if she'd be able to find the Amazon coven, remembering Zafrina's claim of their future friendship. She wasn't holding out much hope for that, but she did think it would be nice to learn what it was like to live that disconnected from human society. It seemed interesting to her.

Nessie made her way through Brazil and set off for the Amazon. She'd never seen such a variety in wildlife and she was able to hunt without any worries. She was careful not to kill any endangered species because she did believe in animal rights, after all. She only killed what was extremely necessary to sustain her and that versus killing actual humans seemed fair to her. She would try and go back to eating human food as soon as she went back to civilization, but for now blood would suffice.

Nessie was wandering around the Amazon river a few days later when she felt something unusual. She felt like someone was watching her and she picked up an unfamiliar scent that she knew wasn't coming from an animal. She knew it had to be a vampire and the realization scared her. She tried to pinpoint where the scent was coming from, but it was almost impossible to distinguish it among the different smells from the forest.

She decided it was better to let her stalker know she knew he or she was out there, in case they were planning to use the element of surprise against her.

"I know you're out there and I know what you are!" She called into the forest. She spoke English, but didn't know if that was wise on her part. However was out there could speak any language and would most likely not understand her. She looked around frantically, searching for a clue.

Several minutes passed until she finally heard something behind her, a twig snapping. In the blink of an eye, she found herself surrounded by three statuesque women. They were all very tall, fierce looking and wild. Their eyes shined like rubies as they looked down on her.

Nessie recognized the Amazon coven her fear diminished. It didn't go away completely because she wasn't sure if they recognized her. "Zafrina, it's been a very long time". She offered. Zafrina's eyes narrowed at her.

"How do you know my name, young one?" She asked in a heavy accent. The other two women flanked her sides and held their ground as they observed the exchange.

Nessie gulped. "It's me, Renesmee Cullen." She said in a weak voice. "You helped save my family eight years ago."

Zafrina's eyes widened and her posture relaxed the slightest bit. "Little Nessie, is that really you?" She asked and Nessie nodded in response. Kachiri seemed uneasy behind her. "What brings you to us, my child?"

Nessie smiled. Zafrina wouldn't hurt her as long as she remembered who she was. "I've been traveling through Central and South America for a couple of weeks, I didn't know I'd run into you here." She said.

Zafrina spoke to her adoptive sisters in another language and they immediately moved away from her, giving them privacy. Zafrina turned to Nessie and placed a hand on her cheek. "You have grown up to be a very beautiful woman."

"Thank you." Nessie replied. "I hope you remember that my family and I consider you very good friends and we are forever in debt to you for offering us support when we needed it."

"We consider you friends as well." Zafrina stated. "Are you going to pass along or do you have plans to remain in the area?"

"I wanted to stay for a little while longer, I don't know much about the forest just yet." Nessie said honestly.

"Senna and Kachiri will be alright with you staying around us if that is what you wish." Zafrina said. "I can teach you what you need to know, my child."

Nessie smiled again. "I would love that, Zafrina."

Nessie found it extremely easy to hang around the Amazon coven. They were completely different from what she was used to, definitely savage and wild. She kept her distance as much as she saw fit and noticed that Zafrina was the most outspoken of the three. The others seemed to function in unison, they all did, and she noticed quickly that Kachiri seemed to be their leader.

Zafrina's gift was very similar to Nessie's and she learned a lot about her abilities from her. Weeks passed and Nessie could tell that life around these three women wasn't a possibility for her, even though she enjoyed their presence for the most part. They hunted humans every few days and Nessie stayed behind, not wanting to see it happen. She would sleep and find them again during the day, but she was quickly growing tired of the lack of civility.

Nessie said her goodbyes and deepest thank yous to the Amazons and it was time to move on. She knew she looked wild from having spent the last weeks running around the forest in pretty much the same clothes every day and not taking care of personal hygiene. She didn't exactly smell bad, like a human would, because she didn't sweat but she missed the feeling of sitting in a bathtub with warm water running.

She moved into the city of Brasilia and tried to find a hostel to stay in. It was nighttime so she wasn't able to exchange money, but she was able to use American dollars to pay for room. She bathed and disposed of her clothes, throwing on the last set she had with her. Her backpack had enough space now for her to shop for new garments so she decided she'd do that the next morning.

She was busy running simple errands and finding shops all morning. She ended up buying just a couple of outfits for herself, knowing she couldn't carry much. She went to a random restaurant to get lunch and did her best to try and understand the menu. Luckily, some things were translated to English or Spanish so she was able to place an order.

Later in the day, she was walking through a plaza, enjoying herself. People were loud and happy, there were street performers playing music and she stopped to watch them. People had gathered around and were watching as well. After a while she stood on her tip toes to see if she could find another performance to go watch and saw that about a block down, some people had gathered around in a small circle. She made her way through the sea of people to get to where they were. When she reached the small audience, she peeked around them to see what it was all about.

Nessie saw a man sitting with his back to her in front of an easel, painting a beautiful toucan. His hands worked skillfully across the paper and she couldn't help but feel entranced the the serenity he exuded. It reminded her of Jasper and she smiled faintly.

People started walking away after while, but she wanted to keep watching him work. She would buy the painting from him if she had a place to take it, but she didn't. As the small crowd moved away, she walked closer to him. She was determined to compliment his work before leaving, as she'd seen other people do. The wind blew and carried his scent toward her, causing her to stop. The scent wasn't human.

She immediately thought vampire, but she noticed the scent wasn't exactly like a vampire's either. She walked closer to him and gasped as soon as she took a good look at his face. She knew this man, she'd had dreams about him before. This man had saved her and her family's life with his story eight years ago. He had walked into the clearing alongside a beautiful woman with similar features than him and spoken to the Volturi. She owed him her life.

Nessie's gasp caused him to turn his attention to her and they locked eyes. His were a beautiful light teak color. They stared at each other for a couple of seconds before he spoke. He said something in a language that Nessie could only imagine was portuguese.

"I'm sorry." She said shyly. "I don't speak portuguese." He blinked at her and gave her a side sort of smirk.

"My apologies." He said. "I asked you if you were alright." Nessie smiled at him and felt herself blush.

"I'm more than alright thanks to you." She said and his eyebrows drew together in confusion. "You don't remember me do you?"

His eyes darted to the side for a second before going back to her. "Should I?" He asked. Nessie couldn't help but giggle.

"Maybe." She replied. "I'm Renesmee. Renesmee Cullen." His eyes widened in surprise and he rose from his seat. He eyed her up and down and she felt her cheeks warm again.

"I did not recognize you at all, I'm very sorry." He said.

"It's okay, it's been a long time." Nessie said. "I looked a bit different when you last saw me, Nahuel."

He shook his head from side to side slowly. "Unbelievable." He said. "You look... unbelievable." Nessie giggled at him.

"Is it okay if I hug you or would that be inappropriate?" She asked him. He smiled at her.

"You can hug me, Renesmee Cullen." He said and opened his arms for her. She closed the distance between them and embraced him. The hug lasted only a couple of seconds and she caught a whiff of his scent. He smelled like sandalwood and rain.

She took a step back so she could take a good look at his face again. He had angular features and big, almond-shaped eyes. His dark hair reached past his shoulders and was tied back in a low braid. She shook her head and ran her hand through her hair, trying to focus. "Fancy seeing you here." She said.

"I could say the same about you." Nahuel replied. "Are you and your family traveling?"

Nessie shook her head no. "It's just me this time."

"Okay." He said. "Here, I will pick all of this up so we can talk properly, is that alright?"

Nessie nodded quickly. "Yeah, sure. I don't wanna bother you, though." She said. He waved her off.

"You're not." He smiled and took the the sketch book he'd been painting on before off the easel. He set it on the ground next to worn looking leather messenger bag and his art supplies. He folded the easel and grabbed his chair and headed over to a small business behind him that Nessie had missed before. He handed the items to an old man who seemed to be the owner and said something in portuguese. She guessed it was a thank you.

Nahuel headed back to where Nessie was waiting for him. "I'm staying in a place that is right at the end of the street." He told her. "I have to put this away, but you can come with me if you want."

"Sure, let's go." Nessie said.

They walked side by side, staying in the shade provided by the houses and small businesses lining the street. Nahuel matched his pace to hers, given that his legs were a lot longer he could probably walk a lot faster.

"That's beautiful, by the way." Nessie commented, gesturing to the still drying painting on his sketchbook. "Do you sell them?"

"Whenever I need money, yes." He said. "Why? Are you interested?"

"Uh, honestly I would buy it from you but I have no way of storing it at the moment." She said with a grimace. Nahuel chuckled.

"I wasn't being serious, you can have it if you like." He offered.

Nessie shook her head. "I'm flattered, but I'd never let you just give it to me." She said. "Something like that is worth money. But thank you for offering."

"Of course." Nahuel said. "Anyway, what brings you to Brazil?" He asked.

Nessie shrugged. "No reason, really." She said. "I spent some time in the Amazon the past couple of weeks and wanted to see the city."

"The Amazon?" Nahuel said.

"Yeah, I ran into Zafrina and her coven mates. I don't know if you remember them." She replied.

"I remember them, yes." He said. "They were very... wild."

"Yeah, they are." Nessie agreed. "They're friends with my family, though, so they were nice to me. They let me stay around them for a little while."

"Wow, that must have been very different from you." Nahuel mused.

"It was." She said. Nahuel smirked at her like he had before.

He motioned behind him. "This is it." He told her. "You can wait downstairs, I'll be right back." They went inside and Nahuel greeted the woman behind the front desk on his way to the stairs. Nessie sat down on a bench near the entrance.

She crossed her legs and looked around. The place wasn't too different from where she was staying. A couple minutes passed and she heard Nahuel coming down the stairs. He looked down at her when he reached the bottom and smiled faintly. He said goodbye to the woman behind the desk and she said something in return.

"So." He said. "Is there anywhere you want to go?"

"Uhm, not really." Nessie said. "I've only been here for a couple of days, really."

Nahuel nodded. "There's a cafe pretty close by, we can go there. Is that alright?"

"Cafe sounds good." Nessie smiled. "Lead the way."

"Okay, let's go." He reached for the door and held it open for her. She was a bit surprised at his manners, his aunt and him hadn't seemed so civilized when she met them. But then again, she had barely spoken to them at the time.

The cafe was just a couple of blocks away, when they got there a waited seated them in a small table outside. The sun wasn't as bright anymore, so the shade provided by the umbrella over the table was enough to keep them concealed.

"So, I meant to ask you before." Nessie said, after they had settled down.

"Yes?" Nahuel replied.

"Didn't you travel with someone before? Your aunt was it?" She asked. She genuinely wanted to know what happened to her, she remembered his story and knew the woman was very close to him.

"Huilen, yes." He said, leaning back on his chair. "She stayed in Chile, she doesn't like to leave the country."

"Oh, okay." Nessie said. "So, you live in Chile?" A waiter came up to their table and asked them something. Nahuel answered and turned to Nessie.

"Sorry, did you want something?" He asked her.

"Just water is fine by me." She answered. He told the waiter, who nodded and walked away. He came back a minute later with a bottle of water and two glasses and set them on the table. He then proceeded to pour a bit in each glass and Nahuel thanked him when he was done. Nessie smiled at him, hoping the man would understand she didn't speak his language.

"Excuse me, I had to order something for us or we would get kicked out." Nahuel explained.

"Oh, I know. It's fine, really." She said.

"And yes, I suppose you could say I live in Chile." He said, answering her question. "Most of the time, at least."

"So the rest of the time you come here?" Nessie asked.

"Among other places." Nahuel replied. He seemed amused by her.

Nessie was trying to ignore the fact that he was very, very handsome but it was hard. She wasn't used to people like him, he looked so exotic. She felt herself blush again and looked down at her hands.

"I'm really sorry, I know I'm being super awkward." She apologized. "I just can't believe I found you here."

"I don't feel like you're being awkward, but I'm surprised too." He said. Nessie looked up and smiled at him, he smirked in return.

"Does that mean you'll be staying in Brazil, then?" She asked, changing the subject.

"Maybe a couple more days." He said, thoughtfully. "I do want to travel more throughout South America." He looked at her for a second. "What about you?"

Nessie looked away and sighed. "I don't know." She said. "I haven't been here long, but I'll be leaving soon." She hadn't made up her mind about where she'd go next, but she wouldn't worry about it just yet.

Nahuel's eyes met hers and he was smiling softly. "Any suggestions as to where I should go?" She asked.

Nahuel eyed her for a moment. "A few." He said. He looked like he was thinking hard about something. "You know what? I'll make you an offer." He leaned forward and rested his forearms on the table.

Nessie leaned forward as well. "An offer?"

"Yes, whether or not you take it is your choice." He replied.

"Okay, let's hear it." She said, gesturing for him to go on.

"Alright Renesmee, since you and I are doing similar things and hopefully going to the same places, I'm offering to come with you." He said. "Maybe I can act as a tour guide, I guess."

Nessie was stunned, it was incredibly nice of him to offer to come with her. "Wow." She said. "That's very nice of you, but why?"

"Why am I offering?" Nessie nodded yes. "I don't know, it seems like the right thing to do." He said. "Besides, I consider your family as friends and the least I can do for them is make sure you're alright. We're not as strong as the rest of them, after all."

Nessie thought about it. "We consider you a friend as well." She said. "We owe our lives to you and Huilen."

Nahuel smiled at that. "I owe you a great deal in return." He said quietly.

"What do you mean?" She answered.

"Maybe I will tell you someday." Nahuel answered, cryptically. "But for now, what is your answer?"

"Well, first of all, call me Nessie." She started. "And second of all... Let me think about it?" She said.

"Alright." Nahuel said, leaning back on his chair again.

"Okay, I thought about it." Nessie said quickly. "My answer is yes, I'd love to join you."

Nahuel's eyebrows shot up a little bit. "That was quick." He mused.

Nessie shrugged. "My thoughts are quick." He chuckled and she couldn't help but giggle in response.

The sun was setting and they continued to chit chat until night fall. When the time came for them to leave, Nahuel paid for the water they never drank even though Nessie insisted she wanted to be the one to pay for it. He then walked her to the hostel she was staying in. They said their goodbyes and agreed to meet the next day so he could show her around the city a bit more before they moved on.

Nessie sighed to herself once she was back in her room and noticed she was smiling. It had been a pretty good day and she still couldn't believe she'd found Nahuel in Brasilia. She'd always wanted to see him again, but since he was a nomad she never really knew how to contact him.

For the first time since she left home, she felt like she was in the right place.

* * *

 **Author's note: I don't own anything, Stephenie Meyer does.**

 **Hope you enjoyed this chapter, the one or two people who are actually reading LOL. I'm really happy with the way this chapter turned out, this wasn't at all the way I had thought I wanted Nessie and Nahuel to meet, but that portion of the chapter sort of wrote itself.**

 **It's been a while since I've been able to come up with such large portions of a story and just sat down and wrote it out. Overall, I'm really happy I decided to revisit this story.**

 **Don't forget to leave a review! I'm dying to know if anyone is enjoying this fic and what you think about it.**

 **Till the next time!**


	6. Chapter 5

The next day Nahuel showed up at the lobby of Nessie's hostel around mid morning. She'd been waiting for him since the crack of dawn, but when he didn't show up she busied herself organizing the new clothes she'd bought and doing other little things like taking a bath and such. She could've gotten breakfast but she wasn't feeling any hungry since she'd eaten lunch the previous day. It usually worked like that for her, she could eat human food and feel satisfied for days, the same happened when she drank blood, but she never felt the burning thirst any of her other family members felt. Carlisle theorized that since Nessie was half human, that probably saved her the trouble of feeling any blood lust.

She thought about calling Jasper again, but decided against it because for one she wasn't sure if he'd be in class and also because she wasn't quite ready to hear her family's voices. It was beyond impossible at this point for them not to know she'd called a few weeks back, which only confused her even more. It was pretty impressive that they hadn't showed up in Brazil at this point, having somehow tracked her down.

Nahuel took her further into the city and showed her all the tourist spots he could think of, plus some of his favorites. Being around him was such a refreshing experience. He was so quiet and calm, but there were no awkward silences between them. He reminded her so much of Jasper in a way, but at the same time there were so many differences between them. She couldn't put a finger on it, but she knew something about him was telling her to stay. She couldn't keep running aimlessly anymore and he seemed genuinely interested in coming with her wherever the wind took them, so to speak.

The sun was setting again by the time they decided to call it a day. They had been able to stay out of the sunlight for the most part, but something about the time of day just made it impossible for them to stay in the public eye. They ran out to the edge of the city, seeking shade in the forest not quite ready to go back to their boring rooms just yet.

They walked through the forest side by side in comfortable silence. Nessie was burning with hundreds of questions she wanted to ask him, but she didn't want to make a single sound. Something about the way he moved, how he carried himself, made her want to just watch him. She was still trying to comprehend how this man could be like her; they were so different in every single way. He caught her looking and gave her a calm smile. She smiled back.

"You look like you want to say something." He said in his slight accent. He slowed down and eventually stopped at a small clearing. Nessie stood next to him and looked up at his eyes. "You must have a million questions."

Nessie smiled shyly. "Only a couple thousand." She joked.

"Well, let's hear them." Nahuel said.

"I don't want to scare you away." She played with her hands in a nervous gesture. He made her very self-conscious, something she wasn't exactly used to.

"Well, you will not know if you're scaring me unless you actually say something." He motioned for them to sit on the ground. They sat crossed-legged face to face.

Nessie looked down at her hands, searching for the right topic to start on. "I don't know where to start."

"How about the most embarrassing question? That should break the ice." He gave her an amused look and she giggled under her breath.

She straightened her back and took a deep breath. "Okay, you asked for it." Nahuel nodded encouragingly. "How come you're not with anyone?"

"With anyone in what way?" He asked. She blushed a little.

"I mean like romantically speaking." Nessie stammered embarrassingly.

"Ah, I see." Nahuel seemed to think for a brief second and chuckled softly to himself. "Of course that would be the most embarrassing thing you could think of. Well, it is fair for you to wonder I guess."

Nessie gave him an apologetic smile. "Too personal, right? You don't have to answer me." Nahuel shook his head.

"I don't mind. I just don't believe anyone has ever asked me something like that." He looked away, a serene expression on his face. "I am not with anybody at the current moment."

"But you have been before?" Nessie prompted. Nahuel nodded softly, still looking away.

"There have been women in my life before, but nothing permanent." His eyes locked with hers for a moment. "I suppose you want to know about that." Nessie nodded and Nahuel smiled again. "Well, I have been by Huilen's side for most of my life. The times I have been on my own, I have ended up seeking other companies. I believe the need for other relationships began sometime after I was fully grown."

"I believe the first time I encountered a woman that I was able to develop feelings for, was no more than a decade after I had stopped aging. I was in Peru at the time, after having left Huilen somewhere around Chile, I believe." He smiled at himself, remembering. His eyes seemed to be seeing an entirely different view than the clearing in form of them. "I saw her at a market and I immediately knew she was not human, her eyes were like Huilen's. She didn't notice me at first, but when she did she approached me. Out of curiosity, I suppose. We ended up spending a few years together, but I can't recall exactly how long it was until we parted ways."

Nessie was completely enthralled by the story, but she'd never heard of vampires having more than one mate. Her family had always told her that vampires would find the one person they wanted and stay with them forever.

"Why did you go separate ways?" She asked. Nahuel smirked in response.

"We wanted different things." He shrugged in a nonchalant way. He said it like it was the most natural thing in the entire world. "People evolve, Nessie, they change."

Nessie frowned at his words, still discovering just how different they really were. "I guess I never thought about It that way. I grew up around four pairs of vampires who all believe in that on true love."

"One true love." Nahuel repeated to himself, pensive. "Tell me about this "love" you speak of. Do you believe in that?"

Nessie blinked at him, surprised. The way he said it was like it was some sort of foreign concept to him. "Well... Carlisle has a theory about how it all works." She evaded the question in what she hoped was a subtle way. Nahuel raised his eyebrows in response, so she kept going. "He thinks that since vampires are frozen in time, seemingly unchanging, when that one person comes along and makes the smallest impact, just enough to generate change, then it means that a vampire has found their true mate. He thinks that's how love works for them, unlike humans who suffer a chemical reaction in their brains because they're alive and they do change constantly."

Nahuel had a look in his face that Nessie couldn't quite understand. It was like he was both questioning and extremely impressed. "That is a very interesting theory, indeed. However, in that same mindset, if vampires are unchanging and they are able to have this reaction towards a certain someone, wouldn't the same principle apply to those who do change? You and I, for example, we have a part of ourselves that is unchanging which is why we eventually stop aging, but at the same time we have another part of us that is human. Our human side does change, constantly, we are able to have those chemical reactions you mentioned happen to us. Meaning Carlisle's theory could be plausible, but also it would mean that love is not as permanent to us as it is to a vampire."

Nessie thought about it and for a moment, it did make sense that it would be possible for her to experience love in a similar fashion to a human. She had felt attracted to more than one person before, and she wasn't sure if that was the case for the other members of her family. She had never talked about it with them because she never felt comfortable enough to say anything, specially in front of Jacob.

"Are you alright?" Nahuel said, pulling her away from her thoughts.

"I'm sorry, I was just thinking about what you said." She gave him an apologetic smile and looked down at her hands again.

"Are you in love, Nessie?" He asked softly.

Nahuel's question took her by surprise. "Uh... No, I-I'm definitely not." She stammered, her face getting hotter by the second.

"Your face is a completely different color." He said with an amused expression. Nessie couldn't help but laugh.

"I wasn't exactly expecting you to ask me that." She admitted. "I thought it would be obvious to you."

"Why would it be obvious?" His eyebrows pulled together, making him look confused.

"I don't know, the fact that I'm asking you all this? I have no idea what being in love even feels like." She scratched the back of her neck while she spoke. It was a nervous habit she'd developed recently.

Nahuel looked even more confused than before. "That is a funny thing for you to say, with you being promised to someone." It was Nessie's turn to be confused. Promised?

"What do you mean? I'm not _promised_ to anyone." She said. Nahuel laughed once, mocking her.

"Are you sure about that?" He asked her, tentatively. Nessie shook her head and laughed.

"Yes, I'm sure." She scoffed at him. "I think I would know if I was promised to someone, Nahuel. Why are you even asking me this?"

He looked at her for a moment, the same tentative expression on his face. Next thing she knew, his hand was on her wrist, inspecting something. She looked down and saw he was holding the bracelet Jacob had woven for her when she was younger between his fingers. He held up her wrist so she could look at it, too.

"I happen to know a little bit about tribe fashion." He said with a smirk. "You seem to be misinformed about what this means on your wrist." He let go and her hand fell back down on her lap.

Nessie looked down at Jake's gift and couldn't help but wonder if Nahuel was right. She knew imprints tended to fall for each other and she'd always known that her father was always a bit reluctant towards Jake. She didn't think he would give her a gift like that and not tell her why she had it, though.

"You think my bracelet is some sort of promise ring?" She asked. "Jake gave this to me years ago, it was just a Christmas gift and nothing more."

Nahuel smiled at her defensiveness. "Sure, if you say so." He winked at her and stood up in one swift motion. He offered her his hand to help her up. She took it and once on her feet, she started walking away.

"No _if_. I know it's just a bracelet." She said, looking at him over her shoulder. His chuckle made his chest tremble and it made her smile. She started making her way out of the clearing.

"I will take your word for it." She heard Nahuel say from behind her. "You know, if you continue going that way, you will eventually fall off the edge of a cliff. Not that it matters, but you would have to climb back up." Nessie stopped and turned around. Nahuel was smiling brightly at her. His energy was contagious.

"Okay lead the way then, jungle boy." He barked a single laugh and motioned for her to join him back in the clearing.

A few moments passed as they walked together, the right way this time. Nessie was still thinking about what he'd said earlier, but decided to continue the conversation from before. "So, you're single." She commented, just trying to break the silence.

Nahuel looked her way for a split second. "Yeah." He said and added: "Why? Are you asking me out?"

Nessie felt her eyes widen in shock and immediately backtracked. "What? No!" She stumbled.

He grave her a serious look. "So you don't find me attractive." He said matter-of-factly. He had stopped walking and Nessie did the same in return.

She gasped. "Nahuel! Are you serious?" She was sure her mouth was hanging open in a pretty embarrassing way and her face felt hot.

Nahuel looked at her seriously for a couple of long seconds and just when Nessie was about to say something else, he chuckled at her and kept walking. "Hey!" Nessie called and jogged up to catch up with him.

"What?" Nahuel asked innocently as soon as she was back by his side.

"That's not funny." She reprimanded him.

"Then why are you laughing?" He deadpanned.

Nessue humphed, he was being ludicrous and she couldn't help but enjoy it. "You think you're so clever, don't you?"

Nahuel rolled his eyes at her. "Your really can't take a joke, can you?" He said.

Nessie smacked his arm playfully. "I happen to be quite the jokester myself, just you wait."

He chuckled at her again and they went back to their comfortable silence. It was dark enough for it to be safe for them to back to the city and back to their respective places.

"That wasn't very nice, by the way." Nahuel commented.

Nessie gave him a questioning look. "What? Smacking your arm?" She asked. "You'll get over it."

"Actually I was referring to you not answering me before about whether or not you think I'm handsome." He said. "But now that you mention it, that was also quite rude of you."

The look of shock on Nessie's face was impossible to hide and Nahuel chuckled at her, his shoulders trembling. "You are very easy to make uncomfortable."

Nessie scoffed. "You're actually terrible." She said. She looked up at him and saw that he hadn't stopped smiling. She couldn't help but laugh at his teasing.

 **Author's note: I don't own crap. Stephenie Meyer is the one and only owner of the Twilight series.**

 **Okaaaaayy! So, I wrote the bigger half of this chapter a couple months ago before I decided to revisit this story. I got the promise ring scene idea out of the blue after I remembered that portion of Breaking Dawn. I really like that I was able to fit it into the story without making it seem forced, at least I think it doesn't but you guys let me know.**

 **Also, I want to clarify a couple of things about this story: it is a re imagining of a story I wrote some years ago called "My Paramour" but it's not at all the same story, if you read that one you'll be able to tell the differences very quickly. I actually noticed earlier that the preface of this story has "My Paramour" as a title for some reason and I would change it, but that would mean I'd have to delete the chapter and re upload it with the corrections and I honestly can't be bothered to do that right now lol.**

 **Second thing I want to clarify here is that even though J. D. Pardo played Nahuel in the movie verse, I never imagined him looking like that when I read the book and I was extremely disappointed when they casted that actor for the role of Nahuel. He wasn't nearly exotic enough for my taste and he just looked very stiff, I dunno. It just irks me because I feel like they made fantastic casting choices for some of the characters and epically blew it with others.**

 **Sorry for ranting there for a second, anyway I'm still looking for pictures of south American men to see if I find one that resembles what I originally imagined Nahuel to look like. Also, he's described in the books as not being very tall, but I kind of want him to stand at exactly six feet tall because in my mind it's the height that suits him. This is why Nessie has to look up at him, since she has a similar height as Bella, but it's not as difficult for her to reach him as it is with Jacob because he's basically a giant according to the books.**

 **Well, I hope that clarifies some questions in case you had any. I felt the need to do so.**

 **Till the next time!**

 **P.S.: I've been listening to Lindsey Stirling the entire time I've been writing the past few days and if you don't know who she is, you're lost. Go find her music and YouTube channel and listen to her.**


	7. Chapter 6

**A/N: I don't own anything, Stephenie Meyer does. All characters from the books are hers and hers only.**

 **Long time no see! I've been gone for a really long time, but I'm back for a bit. This chapter isn't anything special, I just wanted to try and move the story along a little bit so we can get to the good part. If it were up to me, I'd write at least 4 or 5 more chapters of just Nessie and Nahuel getting to know each other, but I dunno if I have the patience for that. We'll see, I guess.**

 **Hope you enjoy this tiny filler-esque chapter.**

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It had been nearly a week since Nessie had found Nahuel and they had decided to travel together. She was finding it incredibly easy to be around him, even though he did make her nervous. He was surprisingly easy to talk to about everything, which surprised her because he seemed like a very quiet person at first and in a way he was, but he could also talk for hours if you hit the right subject with him. His mind was fascinating to her, his perspective of the world made her question her very existence and her own beliefs.

They had decided to move on to a couple different towns in Brazil, having already explored everything they could where they met. Nessie couldn't help but love the warmth and the music and the people every place they went. She was used to a colder demeanor from people up north, and she also noticed people just seemed happier in Latin America than they were in colder countries. She couldn't ignore the poverty though; it didn't escape her attention when they saw the conditions a lot of people had to live in. Nahuel didn't like it either, but his views on material possessions and money in general were entirely different from Nessie's.

"I don't understand why our kind would ever need money to survive". He commented once. "Anything you could ever need you could find or get in other ways."

Nessie had rolled her eyes at him. "You can't just steal your way through life, Nahuel. It's not right."

"Maybe not, but you don't have to steal to get what you want. You can find old clothes if you need them and clean yourself in a river or a lake. What else could you possibly need besides that?" He asked her.

"Everything!" She answered. "If you want a home you have to buy or rent. I guess you could build a house, but you need materials and those cost money. Unless you wanna live completely separated from society and not have any real human relationships, then I guess you would be right."

Nahuel laughed softly at her response. "Spoken like a true daughter of modern society." He mused. "You believe the only real way to live is by abiding by human rules. It's not wrong, not really, but I come from a different time. Life was much simpler then."

"How simple?" Nessie asked.

He seemed to think about it for a second. "Well, jeans and shirts did not exist in my time." He looked at her and added: "We wore no clothes at all."

Nessie looked at him for a long moment, she had a feeling he was joking. "Are you sure about that? I seem to remember you in a little handmade skirt and sandals."

"It wasn't a skirt." He retorted. Nessie laughed. "It was handmade, that part you guessed correctly. But I only wore it out of respect. When Alice and Jasper spoke about the small child they were trying to save, I figured I had to protect your innocence."

"You are so full of it." Nessie scoffed.

They continued in the same fashion every day: going new places, meeting new people, having playful banters with each other. Nessie was having the time of her life and she could swear she could see in Nahuel's eyes that he was having fun, too.

They would pick a town or a city and settle into a small hotel for a few nights. Nahuel barely carried any money with him, so he would sell his paintings whenever he ran out. Nessie offered to pay for him several times, but he never let her. He even told her she could go to fancier hotels if she wanted, she didn't have to stay in the same places he did, but she liked being near him. Just knowing that he was sleeping in the room right next to hers or right across gave her a sense of security she was quickly starting to grow accustomed to. She often wondered if he felt the same way about her company, it must have been lonely before for him before. Why else would he offer to stay with her right away that day at the café?

Things were starting to get confusing, though. Nessie had absolutely no experience with being around anyone outside her family for as long as she had been with Nahuel, sure she had friends at school but she hadn't been going for so long in the first place and she only saw them there and maybe around town sometimes. She wasn't sure where the boundaries should be set between her and Nahuel because he didn't seem to have many. For example, he was absolutely comfortable knocking on her door in the middle of the night, with no shirt on (which was incredibly distracting in very new ways to Nessie), just to continue a conversation they'd had earlier but he also could go for hours on end without saying a word to her. He never exactly ignored her, but he seemed to sometimes forget she was there all together.

Nessie caught herself staring at him out of the corner of her eye without thinking about it, thinking about him when she was trying to sleep at night and feeling her heart race even faster than usual whenever he said her name in a certain way. All of that added to how nervous and self-conscious she felt whenever he looked at her, had her thrown completely off balance. She wasn't used to feeling like this and she wondered if it meant she was developing feelings other than just friendship for Nahuel. He caught her staring at him often and he let it slide, most of the time. Others, he would make subtle comments that left Nessie wondering if he was feeling something, too.

"As wonderful as it is to feel your eyes on me, you are staring quite a lot." He said once, causing Nessie's face to change colors to various shades of red.

Another time he noticed her heart racing and asked her if she was okay. It was embarrassing, but Nessie didn't know if he'd asked out of concern or because he wanted to make fun of her. She'd wished she could catch him staring at her for once, but he always seemed to be in complete control of his actions. In fact, he seemed to never take a single breath out of time. Everything about him was so seamlessly fluent and graceful, like he didn't need to think about his next move because it just came out naturally perfect. Even the most random things just seemed to work themselves out for him. It made Nessie a bit angry. She seemed to be stumbling her way through the world next to him, while he effortlessly cruised by.

Nessie had lost track of time at this point, she had no idea what day it was or how many places they'd been, but it didn't bother her. The only thing reminding her of all the problems she'd left back home was the sensation of being pulled by a string attached to the middle of her chest that seemed come out of nowhere every once in a while. It left her breathless almost every time and she wondered if Jacob, wherever he was, felt the same sensation in his chest. Nessie wouldn't find out until much later that these episodes were not going by unnoticed by her companion.

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 **A/N: So, I would like to get reviews on a few things:**

 **1\. I deleted the 'first time' chapter because I don't really know at what point in the story that will actually happen and also because I feel it threw off the readers. Let me know if you want it back, in case you got a chance to read it, if not I'm sorry!**

 **2\. Should I speed up the story in the next chapter of should I spend more time building up the big 'getting together' moment?**

 **3\. Is this story still relevant or am I just throwing this into the void? I understand if it is dead. At this point I would've unsubscribed for it if I was the reader. I'm a real mess when it comes to writing and following schedules and all that. I'm a medical student and it doesn't leave much time for recreational writing.**

 **Let me know your thoughts! I have so many ideas of where I want this story to go, it's just really difficult for me to put it into words sometimes, but I think about it every single day, I swear. Also, if any of you want to PM me to know any details about the characters that you might want to know and possible spoilers, just slide into my PMs and ask away.**

 **Thank you, hope you're still reading 3**


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